Kings of the Mountains: How Colombia's Cycling Heroes Changed Their Nation's HistoryFor the first time Matthew Rendell tells the little-known story of a Latin American country in which cycling is the national sport, whose sportsmen, denied the enormous benefits of prosperity, cutting-edge technology and unlimited sponsorship, have nevertheless achieved prodigious cycling feats both at home and abroad, and helped to forge for Colombia a heroic national identity. He tells of how, during the fifties, Colombia's own top cycle race, the Vuelta de Colombia, was still being held on dusty, unpaved roads - with consequentially ghastly accidents; of how the first top European cyclists who came to race in Colombia found themselves utterly vanquished by its endless mountain climbs; of how the biography of Colombia's first cycling superstar was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Then, following the story through to the seventies and eighties, he shows how Colombia's cyclists began to make their mark abroad, even in the ultimate competition, the Tour de France - and, while they may have lacked the team discipline and the pace training to win the race itself, how to them the premier accolade was to become King of the Mountains, by beating everyone else in the Tour's most drainin |
Contents
The indomitable Zipa | 1 |
A Colombian trinity | 25 |
Olympuss faded hierarchy | 34 |
Copyright | |
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Kings of the Mountains: How Colombia's Cycling Heroes Changed Their Nation's ... Matt Rendell No preview available - 2003 |
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aguapanela Alfonso Flórez Alpe d'Huez amateur Antioquian athletes began Beyaert Bicicletas Ositto bicycle bike Bogotá Botero Boyacá Café de Colombia Cali career champion climb coach cocaine Cochise Cochise's Colombia's cyclists Colombian cycling compete Coppi cycling's domestique drugs Europe European event Fabio Parra Fausto Coppi Felice Gimondi following day Forero Gimondi guerrillas Hernán Hernández Hinault hour Hoyos's Indomitable Zipa Italian Italy José kilometres Koblet later leader leader's jersey Lucho Herrera Martín Ramírez Medellín Mejía metres Miguel Ángel Bermúdez minutes Morcá mountains competition national tour Niño Olympic overall Pablo Escobar Pacho Patrocinio Jiménez Pintada professional race Ramón Hoyos Raphael RCN Classic ride rival road road-racing Roberto Escobar rode Rodríguez Rojas Sogamoso sponsored sport stage win Suárez team-mate took Tour de France Tour de l'Avenir Tour of Colombia town trial velodrome victory violence Vuelta a Colombia Vuelta a España Vuelta al Táchira winner World Championships Zipa